Dual wielding - Fighting with Paired Swords

Paired sidesword sparring. We are currently working through a month long training block on the paired swords according to Marozzo, though we have worked from other sources on this before including Manciolino and Godinho.
We are each using one Malleus sidesword and one Kvetun Sidesword no.5.

[@WritingFighter]

Years and years ago the best viable way I found to use swords in this manner was to often have them crossed together and I'm really glad to see some of that at play here.

[@KlausBeckEwerhardy]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[@thinnedpaints6503]

Are those the new HF Black Prince gloves? If so, are you planning on doing an overview/review on them? I'm particularly interested in them as a potential sabre glove, though there's so little information on them it's hard to tell if they'd be suitable.

[@AcademyofHistoricalFencing]

They are yes, we got the first pair ever made as a tester and have been carrying out extensive testing for the last month, initial review video coming very soon.

[@thinnedpaints6503]

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing Excellent, thank you :)

[@TheTarkovish]

They are sitting in my cart… waiting on review to buy

[@heirihunziker]

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing Excellent - looking forward to the HF Black Prince review, as well. Despite already having half a dozen sidesword gloves, still haven't found one that works for all my hilts while providing enough protection to fence against heavier weapons.

[@MichaelGThomas]

Ah, the epic fail at 4:24 where Ian (middle pair of fighters in purple) gets his swords tangled while fighting with me...and pays the price.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

Why that kind of fighting was not common? My view: cost. Swords are expensive and two of them doubles the price and doubles the needed maintenance. Definitely not the most cost-effective style, but definitely looks functional enough.

[@AcademyofHistoricalFencing]

By the 16th century when paired swords were reaching their peak of popularity in Europe, swords were not all that expensive anymore and had become a very common daily wear item for many. Large offhand daggers were also very popular and they cost almost as much as a sword and required almost as much maintenance as well. There are a few reasons why paired swords have never been hugely popular. 1 - Weight and bulk - A full size sword is a large and bulky object, carrying two of them day to day is a real nuisance, and could actually get very uncomfortable and painful. 2 - If you were going to carry so much extra bulk/weight, a shield would be better in a great many contexts. For example having to fend off missile weapons, whether that is javelins on a battlefield to rocks from an angry mob. A shield is also much better against pole arms than a second sword. 3 - The training required to use them well is very time consuming. 4 - In the event of needing to defend oneself quickly, a shorter offhand weapon is much more useful. Such as eing rushed at close range, or having to defend oneself indoors after having taken your longer blades off. 5 - Overkill - Overall these kinds of swords were predominately worn for self defence in civilian life or as sidearms in war, not something you are expecting to use i anger regularly.

[@vksasdgaming9472]

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing If I recall right one Italian master was paid to develop method to fight with two swords by wealthy client. He did it and observed that first you had to become ambidextrous to truly know how to fence with two swords. Very long process. In personal combat there are way more ways to fight effectively than on battlefield.

[@ayoubamaioua4885]

Very interesting. I wonder if you were attacking our counterattacking in such a way that you were covering the line of attack of both of your opponent's swords using your two weapons?

[@AcademyofHistoricalFencing]

That is always an aim wherever possible yes. Generally speaking one sword will be covering the opponents blades whilst the other strikes. It can be very tricky though as either sword of either person can change from defence to attack in a split second.

[@ayoubamaioua4885]

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing And what if the opponent positions his swords in such a way that you won't be able to cover the line of attack of both of his weapons? How would you attack or counterattack in this situation?

[@417hemaspringfieldmo]

So black jacket is resorting mainly to the Iberian source and Red jacket to the Bolognese?

[@MegaLars10]

what brand of sidesword do you use?

[@AcademyofHistoricalFencing]

Here we are each using 1 Malleus model and 1 Kvetun (no.5). We also use Black Fencer and have the newly released Regenyei models on the way which we expect will once again be up there in quality with those other three.